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Dozens of people become U.S. citizens at Lexington battle site as part of 250th anniversary celebration
"You do not take an Oath of Allegiance to any person, to any political party or even to any state or local government."
More than four dozen immigrants swore their oaths of allegiance on Lexington’s Battle Green on Tuesday, becoming U.S. citizens on the site where the first shots of the American Revolution were fired 250 years ago.
The naturalization ceremony was the final official event in Lexington’s commemorations of the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington. The 49 participants in the ceremony took the Oath of Allegiance to the U.S. Constitution in front of loved ones, town officials, and community members, according to the town’s Semiquincentennial Commission, Lex250.
“This is a solemn, conscious commitment to America’s enduring principles and ideals,” U.S. District Court District of Massachusetts Judge Paul Levenson said during the event. “The Oath of Allegiance, which you’ve just recited, calls upon you to support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies — foreign and domestic — and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same. You do not take an Oath of Allegiance to any person, to any political party or even to any state or local government. Your oath is to the Constitution, which has long been the cornerstone in the system of ordered liberty that has been the greatest treasure of this nation.”
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According to the Lex250 commission, the new group of citizens was the first to take the Oath of Allegiance on Lexington Green. The 49 people who became American citizens originally immigrated from Albania, Algeria, Brazil, Cape Verde, China, Columbia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ghana, Haiti, India, Iran, Ireland, Jamaica, Lebanon, Malawi, Morocco, Nepal, Poland, Romania, Sierra Leone, South Korea, Ukraine, and Vietnam.
Three of the new citizens are Navy veterans and two are currently serving in the Army National Guard and Air Force Reserves.
Craig Sandler, President of the Board of Directors for the Lexington History Museums, said during the ceremony that even in uncertain and turbulent times, the United States “still stands for freedom and opportunity and respect for people from all walks of life.”
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“The citizens of Lexington who fought here 250 years ago sparked a revolution based on the principles of equality and human rights,” he said. “These principles are definitely still alive, and we reaffirm them here today.”
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